Wreck of HIJMS Yahagi (矢矧)

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, cruiser

HIJMS Yahagi was the 2nd member of the Agano Class of Light Cruisers built by the Imperial Japanese Navy and was laid down in November 1941 at the Sasebo Navy Yard. Designed to be a fast and heavily armed Destroyer flotilla Flagship, the Yahagi commissioned into service as the Flagship of Destroyer Squadron 10, IJN Third Fleet in December 1943.

Sailing for Singapore upon her completion, the Yahagi and her crew conducted training and battle exercises from February through June 1944 with members of the Carrier and Destroyer force until word was received of the American Invasion of the Marianas Islands. Joining forces with several other battle groups to form the IJN Mobile Fleet, the Yahagi sailed for her first combat on June 13th, 1944 bound for the Philippine Sea. Six days later the Japanese Carriers the Yahagi was escorting launched their aircraft to attack the ships of US Navy Task Force 58 off Saipan, where the young and relatively inexperienced Japanese pilots were decimated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, more commonly known as the "Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot". As the Japanese fleet withdrew without making visual contact with their American foes, the Yahagi diverted to rescue crewmen from the torpedoed Carrier Shokaku as she sank off Yap before steaming North to Okinawa and then to Japan, where she spent a month under repair and refit.

Returning once again to Singapore in convoy with several Capital ships of the IJN, the Yahagi conducted fleet training until the American Invasion of the Philippines brought her and the entire Japanese Fleet back to the front lines in October 1944, where she joined forces again along with 2 Battleships, 4 Heavy Cruisers, and 6 Destroyers to form the rear unit of the 'Center Force' of the Japanese Naval Armada bound for Leyte Gulf. As the vanguard of the 'Center Force' steamed through the Palawan Passage on the night of October 23rd at high speed, they were attacked first by a picket line of US Submarines, which sunk two Heavy Cruisers and damaged another two so badly both were forced to withdraw. The following morning the entire Center Force came under repeated and heavy air attack starting at 0800hrs on October 24th. Over seven hours, the Yahagi and her crew fended off attacks by no fewer than 250 aircraft, emerging unscathed from action which claimed the mighty SuperBattleship Musashi. At 1530hrs the entire 'Center Force' turned back and appeared to withdraw from the Battle of Leyte Gulf, however within two hours enough damage control had been effected on all the ships and the entire force turned again and made for the almost-unguarded San Bernardino Strait, left wide open by the departure of the US 7th Fleet. When the Yahagi emerged off Samar as part of the still-powerful remnants of the 'Center Force' emerged off Samar at dawn on October 25th, and found the passage guarded by what appeared to be six Fleet Carriers, escorted by three Cruisers and two Destroyers, when in fact the enormous Japanese force had come upon 'Taffy 3', consisting of six Escort Carriers, three Destroyers and four Destroyer Escorts. In the resulting Battle of Samar, the Yahagi engaged several American ships before her attention was directed to dozens of American aircraft attacking the formation in what descended into a confused and violent battle. Concentrated torpedo and air attacks and heavy damage inflicted on several Cruisers caused the Japanese fleet to withdraw back into the San Bernadino Strait, where they came under heavy air attack all the way though the Philippine Islands, losing another three Cruisers in the process.

Retiring to Brunei with the remnants of the Japanese 'Center Force', the Yahagi and her crew returned to Japan in mid-November escorting the SuperBattleship Yamato, Battleship Kongo and several other Cruisers and Destroyers, where she remained through March 1945 conducting training. With the American success at Iwo Jima putting mainland Japan in range of US fighter aircraft and the American Invasion of Okinawa beginning on April 1st, 1945, the Yahagi and much of the remaining operational ships of the IJN received orders for Operation TEN-ICHI-GO; a one-way trip to Okinawa where all the ships would beach themselves to act as shore and anti-aircraft batteries against the American force invading the island.

After loading only enough fuel to get her safely to Okinawa, the Yahagi departed Tokuyama in convoy built around the SuperBattleship Yamato at 15:20hrs on April 6th, 1945 under strict radio silence. American codebreakers had already deciphered the scope of the Japanese Fleet's mission by the time of their departure, and their suspicions were confirmed when picket submarines sighted the force in the Bungo Strait heading for Okinawa on the night of the 6th. Six Battleships, seven Cruisers and twenty-one Destroyers were mustered by the US Navy to prepare for immediate surface action against the Japanese fleet, but they were held in reserve in favor of concentrated Carrier air strikes while the Japanese force was still in the open ocean. Before dawn on April 7th aircraft were readied aboard the USS Essex (CV-9), USS Intrepid (CV-11), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), USS Hancock (CV-19), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS Cabot (CVL-28), USS Bataan (CVL-29) and USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) for airstrikes against the Japanese ships and were airborne at first light, directed by reports from American Submarines.

Crews aboard the Yahagi and every other ship in the formation were at general quarters at the break of dawn on April 7th, and at 0823hrs lookouts sighted American recon seaplanes shadowing the force. At roughly 1107hrs Yamato's long-range radar began picking up several large groups of inbound aircraft and the fleet commander ordered all ships to increase speed to 25 knots and beginning evasive maneuvers as the ships and their crews awaited the American attack. At 1232hrs, the first wave of what would eventually be 280 aircraft (132 fighters, 50 bombers, 98 torpedo planes) were within visual range, and the Yahagi followed the Yamato's lead and opened fire at 1234hrs.

The first wave of American planes descended on the ships and pressed home coordinated bomb and torpedo attacks which easily overwhelmed the AA gunners on the Japanese ships and within ten minutes a group of American torpedo planes had released their MK-13 torpedoes into the path of the Yahagi. Evasive maneuvers managed to avoid one of the torpedoes but a second slammed into the hull of the Yahagi directly in her engine room at 1246hrs, where it punched through her hull and detonated, killing her entire engine room compliment an then flooding the entire space. The Yahagi wallowed to a halt and went totally dead in the water as her boiler fires were snuffed out by inrushing water. Her gunners tried in vain to fight off their attackers using manual control of her guns, but they were all but powerless to stop a further 12 bombs and 6 torpedoes from impacting the ship and sealing her fate. The order to abandon ship was passed shortly after 1300hrs and some crew were transferred to the Destroyer Isokaze, which was summarily attacked and severely damaged as she stopped to assist, sinking some time later. The remaining crew went over the side during a break in the action as the Yahagi settled by the bow and listing heavily to Port, eventually capsizing and sinking bow-first at this location at 1405hrs on April 7th, 1945. 447 of her crew went down with the ship.

www.combinedfleet.com/yahagi_t.htm